Clarence Darrow Quotes - Page 3

Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation.

I had a vivid imagination. Not only could I put myself in the other person's place, but I could not avoid doing so. My sympathies always went out to the weak, the suffering, and the poor. Realizing their sorrows I tried to relieve them in order that I myself might be relieved.

Chase after the truth like all hell.

There are two things that kill a genius - a fatal disease and contentment.

I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.

Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?

You can only be free if I am free.

The time will come when all people will view with horror light way in which society and its courts of law now take human life; and when that time comes, the way will be clear to device some better method of dealing with poverty and ignorance and their frequent byproducts, which we call crime.

Most jury trials are contests between the rich and poor.

...finally men were saved only through God's son dying for them, and that unless human beings believed this silly, impossible and wicked story they were doomed to hell? Can anyone with intelligence really believe that a child born today should be doomed because the snake tempted Eve and Eve tempted Adam? To believe that is not God-worship; it is devil-worship.

Different strokes for different folks.

There is no such thing as justice - in or out of court.

Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to?

One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life.

The truth is that brains have little to do with either the making or accumulating of money.

Each child should be more intelligent than his parents.

I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.

Education was in danger from the source that always hampered it—religious fanaticism.

The purpose of life is to live it.

Some of you say religion makes people happy. So does laughing gas.

Life is a never-ending school, and the really important lessons all tend to teach man his proper relation to the environment where he must live.

I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.

Autobiography is never entirely true. No one can get the right perspective on himself. Every fact is colored by imagination and dream.

Human action is governed largely by instinct and emotion.

To think is to differ.